Posted: Wed 21 Nov 2012, 15:27 Post subject:
Dual LanguageSubject description: Need to be able to write in 2 languages, English and Danish

I need to be able to write in 2 languages, English and Danish.
Danish is like English, except it has 3 more characters.
This has been no problem using Windoz and Ubuntu.
I press Ctrl and Shift together and the language changes.
I can see the little icon on my panel showing which
language I'm currently using.

Now I'm using Saluki from CD, testing to see if I want Saluki.
I went to Control Panel / Keyboard Settings and selected
both English and Danish. But I could not find what keys
to use to change language. Also there is no icon on the
desktop showing which language I'm in.

It provides a language switcher, but
doesn't seem to allow a bi-lingual keyboard.
I.e., I can have EN or DK, but not both checked.
To switch I must go back to setup.
Thus the switcher is useless.
Strange.
Saluki provides for multilingual keyboard,
but no switcher for switching back and forth.
Precise provides the switcher, but only one
choice for keyboard language.

In Windoz and Ubuntu this is easy peasy.
Years ago wrote the SOP for the DK users group
on how to quickly switch between languages.

It seems that Puppy in not multi-lingual as yet!!
I really wish I could get this working in Puppy so
that I don't have to go back to the slower Ubuntu clan.

Thanks for dropping in on my thread. As you will see I've managed to get it going so that I can switch keyboards on the fly using the keyboard itself. I haven't an explanation as to why one set of toggle keys work and another does not - but I'm happy just to get a solution. Hope you find your answer._________________LxXenial16.08, LxPupSc17.07.01,Lucid 5.2.8 and others - all frugal

Since I need only 3 more letters in Danish than English,
is there a way in Saluki and/or Precise where keys
could be assigned these 3 special Danish letters?

For example -- could the Windoz key
along with the a-key could be used
to make the Danish circle-a (å) letter?
Win+o make the Danish slash o (ø) letter?
Win+e make the Danish ae (æ) letter?
And add the shift-key for caps?

Just to say that I'm just a beginner. I found it surprisingly difficult to do what Jim wants, in my distro.
I tried xdotool and xbindkeys but none of them worked as I wanted them to, nor did editing of the openbox config files. With xdotool you can set up desktop icons for each of the keys you require. The invocation is " xdotool key xxxx" where "xxxx" is the character you want to output. This works OK when you click on the icon, but assigning a shortcut key to the icon didn't work. Hitting the shortcut key seemed to move away from the focused window to the icon, and nothing happened. One suggestion was that the output was going to /dev/null.
My latest effort works by switching the keyboard but it still requires in some cases 2 key strokes where one ought to do, but I can live with that since it is characteristic of the Spanish keyboard._________________LxXenial16.08, LxPupSc17.07.01,Lucid 5.2.8 and others - all frugal

@Jim I tried Saluki (in the form of Simplicity) but found it hid too much from the user (somewhat like Windows) - fine when things were going right or if you had access to a private guru. The Lucid (Ubuntu based) distro, that I use, is just about right for me and as you can see it allows 2 keyboards (possibly more) as well as a switcher key. I now have 2 visual signals when I change keyboards - the scroll lock light and a country flag icon on the monitor (the icon is supplied by fbxkb). I can switch either by using the toggle key (Shift-Alt) or by clicking the fbxkb icon.
If you can't switch keyboards xdotool may be the best bet since you only need 3 desktop icons. You may find that the shortcut keys for the desktop icons actually work!! This would give you the 3 extra keys without changing keyboards - which would have been my preferred solution, if I could have got it to work in Lucid.
@nooby That link in your signature was one of the first really helpful links that I came across in my struggles with puppy. I've used it over and over again (it's my homepage )_________________LxXenial16.08, LxPupSc17.07.01,Lucid 5.2.8 and others - all frugal

I have installed duel and triple language layouts in several distros.
Here are two I now have working on my laptop.

I don’t remember how I installed it in Crunchbang-10, but
in my Crunchbang-10 I go to etc/default/keyboard.
There I have:
XKBMODEL=”pc105“
XKBLAYOUT=”us,dk”
XKBVARIENT=”“
XKBOPTIONS=”grp:ctrl_shift_toggle”

There is no etc/default/keyboard in my Ubuntu 10.04, Lucid.
In etc/default there is “console-setup" which mentions the default values,
but not the duel language values.
To install in Ubuntu Lucid go to System, Preferences, Keyboard.
In Keyboard Preferences go to Layouts tab.
There USA has been entered and add Denmark.
In the same window click on Options, then “Key(s) to change layout”.
In my case I selected Ctrl+Shift.

I’m still working Saluki from the live CD.

I installed xdotool, but can’t get it to work.
I installed XKB Configuration Manager into Saluki.
No help there as it only allows a single language!

At present in Saluki I have found a rather non-elegant solution.
I bring up “Keyboard” from “Control Panel” .
I install Denmark along with the default U.S. English.
Then when I want to change language, I click on that language in "Keyboard".
I hope to find a more elegant solution like I have with Ubuntu and Crunchbang.

fbxkb is in Saluki, but I don't know how to activate it.
After I get a switcher working, then I can think about fbxkb.
I really would like an icon on my panel showing which language I'm using.
But, I haven't found a switcher as yet in Saluki. First things first.
I would like to be able to switch languages using the Ctrl+Shift keys.
I've been able to do that with Windoz, Ubuntu, and Crunchbang.
I think Wimpy was able to do it with Lucid Puppy 528.
I may try 528 later this week, if no bone is here.

Here is how I built my language switcher in Saluki.
The languages are Danish and English (US).
I was searching Control Panel and found my answer.
Go to Control Panel and XFCE Settings Editor.
Open (Under Channel) “keyboard-layout".
Click on anyone of the sub-Properties under “Default”.
Click (at bottom) “New”.
Following sub-properties’ example and add the following 3 values
(w/o quotes and commas):
“xkboptions”, “string”, “grp:ctrl_shift_toggle”
Close and reset X.
Open word processer and test.
I opened Abiword and was able to switch
between English and Danish keyboards
using the left control and shift keys together with my little finger.
å æ ø Å Æ Ø

Now I need to see about getting corresponding icons on the panel.
There may be another entry in keyboard-layout
like the one I just did. It seems a logical place to start.

Now I'm using Saluki from CD, testing to see if I want Saluki.
I went to Control Panel / Keyboard Settings and selected
both English and Danish. But I could not find what keys
to use to change language. Also there is no icon on the
desktop showing which language I'm in.

I'm on saluki 023. It seems it provides everything you need out-of-the-box. After adding a second keyboard layout menu Control Panel>Keyboard Settings>Layout, you can add a layout switcher to the panel (a.k.a. the taskbar in Windows). Right click the panel, choose Panel>Add new items...>Keyboard layouts. Done. A national flag should show up in your panel shortly. Right click the flag icon and choose Properties. In the dialog choose Change layout option, and define your preferred layout switch hotkey.

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